Volume 3, Number 3
Aug 1990

Literature

Videotape, "Big Fears ... Little Risks," available from Film
Counselors for $250 (212/315-3950), is available from the American
Paper Institute (API) for $75 to API members; it is not available to
nonmembers. Seven leading scientists and physicians concerned with
cancer research and public health policy put health risks in
perspective. Prepared under the sponsorship of the American Council
on Science and Health and narrated by Walter Cronkite, the videotape
concludes that the trace levels of natural and man-made carcinogens
now being detected in food, water, and air in the parts per billion
range and lower pose no significant threat to human health. For more
information, call John Festa, API-DC, 202/463-2587. The tape is
available for $75 from Dianne Peck, API-DC, 202/463-2593. CPPA is
making it available too. Duration: 30 minutes.

Videotape, "Paper Industry USA: 300 Years of Progress,
1690-1990," was produced by the API. Most of its 10-minute length is
made up of attractive, rapidly projected still photographs, with a
narrative that is more inspirational than educational. The last
minute or so is a message of congratulation from President Bush on
the occasion of the 300th anniversary, and appreciation for the
industry's help with reforestation, the clean air act, and
recycling. order from American Paper Institute, Dept. V, 1250
Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20036 (202/463-2599).
$19.95.

Videotape, "International Paper: Ticonderoga Mill," VHS, 16
minutes, costs only $11.00 including postage and handling from David
Schaefer & Co., Chace Mill East, One Mill St., Burlington, VT
05401 (802/864-3131). Although the focus is on the Ticonderoga mill,
a lot of information about papermaking--from logging to converting
operations and waste water treatment--is given in a clear and
accurate manner, emphasizing Ticonderoga's history, modern
facilities, responsible environmental practices, and the permanence
advantages of the paper it makes.

Videotape, "Turning to Dust." Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,
a program in the series "The Nature of Things," produced by David
Murray and narrated by David Suzuki. 60 min. Aired in Canada March
14, and is expected to be shown on cable channels in this country.
Available in the U.S. through Filmmaker's Library, 124 E. 40th St.,
NYC 10016 (212/ 808-4980); $65 to rent, $395 to buy; small libraries
or individuals with limited budgets can apply for discounts.

This has a great opening: "Something terrible is happening to
books all over the world. They're self-destructing." To illustrate
the point, someone opens a book with crumbled brittle pages and
blows the bits out onto the floor. This dramatic device is not bad
in itself (and not too far from reality, either), but it is used at
least four more times in the next hour, which is a bit
off-putting.

The ways of coping with deteriorating paper and books are
reviewed (boxing, filming, strengthening) as well as ways of
preventing deterioration (environmental control, deacidification,
use of alkaline paper), and there are up-to-date facts and
interesting shots like the interior of an old limestone mine in
Pennsylvania, used for storing microfilm.

The closing comments are as dramatic as the opening. They go
something like this: "The collective memory of humankind is at
stake. Books are where we keep the things we value--our past, our
future, ourselves. But now they're proving mortal just like us." The
point is made powerfully. The producer says that a lot of people saw
the news value of it (since they have never seen "Slow Fires" in
Canada) and wondered why they weren't told about it earlier.

TAPPI proceedings, 1990 Papermakers Conference. 415
pp. The price has not been set an the volume, but it will be about
$50 for members and $75 for nonmembers. Order from TAPPI Press,
Technology Park/Atlanta, PO Box 105113, Atlanta, GA 30348
(404/446-1400, ext. 317). Some of the most interesting papers in it
are:

Effect of Recycling on the Physical Properties of Specific Fibers
and Their Networks," by John F. Bobalek and Mayank Chaturvedi. In
Proceedings, 1988 TAPPI Pulping Conference, p. 183-187.
Under conditions of minimal refining, optical and dimensional
characteristics of waterleaf handsheets made from five types of pulp
were constant with recycling. Opposed to this, consistent strength
loss was observed by four different measures for all furnishes. The
data represents a successful systematic assembly of the sort of
empirical measurements required to predict and control the
properties of a paper/paperboard grade for a given end-use.

Pulp & Paper, March 1990, has a 13-page Special
Report on deinking, with three articles, lists, graphs and process
flow charts (p. 71-85). One of them is "Municipal Solid Waste and
the Paper Industry: The Next Five Years," by Fred D. Iannazzi and
Richard Strauss (P. 222-225), in which the problems in recovery of
printing and writing papers are discussed. Nine developments that
may help reduce the printing/writing paper load in municipal solid
waste are listed.

Over the last 20 years or so, the total of all grades has risen
by 50%, to about 20 million tons. Within that total, the proportion
of pulp substitutes (white trimmings from envelopes and other high
grade paper) has remained steady; mixed grades has fallen by half;
and corrugated has risen by about 50% The rate of wastepaper
recovery grew slightly during the period.

"Briquet and the Future of Paper Studies," by Allan H. Stevenson.
In Briquet's Opuscula: The Complete Works of Dr. C.M. Briquet,
without Les Filigranes. (Monumenta Chartae Papyraceae
Historian Illustrantia IV) Paper Publications Society, Hilversum,
1955. "Briquet's most revolutionary exploit was his rejection and
disproof of the old, old theory that early paper had been made of
cotton.... In 1886 ... he was able to report on microscopic analyses
of no fewer than 122 manuscripts owned by archives and libraries of
Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany, England, and ranging in date
from 960 to the eighteenth century for Arabian paper and through the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries for European paper. Every single
manuscript proved to be made up of hemp or linen fibers, or a
mixture of these...."

Natural Ageing of Paper: Swedish Papers 1908-1988,
by Marie Louise Samelsson and Karin Sörner. Rept. #4 in the
FoU-projektet för papperskonservering. ISSN 0284-5636. 1990.
Order from Riksarkivet, Box 12541, 102 29 Stockholm, Sweden. Papers
(mostly rag or part rag) from four manufacturers from 1908 to 1988
have been tested immediately after manufacture and after natural and
accelerated aging on a number of physical and compositional
characteristics, especially retention of fold. "...The
permanence of the papers made from different fibres in this
investigation are much the same. The durabilities, measured as fold
numbers are, however, approximately ten times higher for the rag
papers than for the papers made from chemical pulp." Much
information and data. Most of the text is in Swedish, but all the
graph legends are in English and Swedish. About 110 pages long.

The Fine Paper Directory, which includes the
Competitive Grade Finder, has had the Grade Finder
redesigned. it is now in tabular form, and gets more information
into less space, in easy-to-consult form. It costs $80; the
Pocket Grade Finder costs $25. (The new
Competitive Grade Finder itself won t be out till
fall.) These three directories, all compiled from the same database,
are the only ones on the market that identify alkaline paper. order
from Grade Finders, Inc., 662 Exton Commons, Exton, PA 19341
(215/5247070).

The August issue of In-Plant Printer will carry Part
I of a series on alkaline paper. One of the questions it will
address is, "What are the problems associated with using alkaline
grades, especially for the small printer?"